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Help a newby with some choices

Hi

I'm in the market for a guitar with humbuckers to go with/replace my 305.

One of my questions is around neck carve options. Which neck is the easiest do getting your thumb on the bottom E string? I find my old Gibson 335 neck still seems as easy as the prs 305 for those kind of chords

Second question relates to pickups. What is the difference between the 408 pickups and the 53/09? I understand there is more options with the 408s. Which pickup is "hotter". I am looking for a pickup that suits a wide variety of music and that sounds neither too thin or too messy. To my ears the the 305 pups sound thin when used clean particularly at the bridge?

thirdly should I be looking for something with a piezo option? I'm thinking if I use a wireless link back to the pa I can get the two different sounds without too many cables. Is switching between piezo and magnetic going to work well in practice, in terms of just physically hitting the switch?

tia for any thoughts from you experienced musos. One part of me says that the simpler the setup the better, less things to go wrong, less maintenance and more emphasis on the music rather than the instrument. Another part of me wants to keep trying something different.

As you probably know, the 305 pickups are single coils; and single coils are usually a little thinner and brighter than humbucking pickups because the 180 degrees out-of-phase orientation of a humbucker producers a more rolled-off treble and a slightly fatter lower midrange. Though the P-90 is a pretty fat sounding little single coil pickup, but that's probably not what you're after...

The 408 is switchable from humbucker to single coil sounds, but it sounds like you're after a traditional humbucker sound. The 59/09 is a take on a classic vintage style humbucker that's a little brighter and hotter than, say, the 57/08. The 53/10 is the least bright and hot of the PRS vintage style trio, but it has wonderful clear tones, and can still rock out.

The 408 is, to me, as hot as the 59/09, but its balance of low end to high end is different from the 59/09.

PRS offers some pickups that are hotter than the 59/09 also. You really should go play some guitars and see what floats your boat. You have to play them to get a feel for what they do.

Also, don't just set the guitar with everything on 10. Try them at different settings, and see how they respond to your playing. They all respond a little differently to pick attack, volume changes, etc.

Well I took lschefman's advice and went and played some guitars. There weren't any 408s in the shop but here was custom 24. It's a 10 top but what sold me were the pups, the neck and the weight. I was surprised how different the neck felt to the 305 neck. Had a think about it whilst also auditioning a lovely Collings d3 acoustic and then took the custom24 home.

Happy with it so far. I'm sure there are lots of better instruments out there but there's a lot of music in this one.

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